


How to Rewrite History (Again)

by Silverfern500



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Companion!Ten - Freeform, Doctor!Rose, Episode Fix-It: s04e13 Journey's End, Episode Fix-It: s04e17-18 The End of Time, F/M, Timepetals, Turn Left, bootstrap paradox, doctorrose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13745583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverfern500/pseuds/Silverfern500
Summary: Inspired by a tumblr post.Doctor Who au short story involving Rose Tyler as The Doctor (standing in for 9&10), running into her older incarnation (Donna Noble standing in for eleven) and discovering she will lose her companion, John Smith (Ten).When it seems she's stuck with the way things happened, The Doctor (Clara standing in for Twelve) is visited one more time by the dimension hopping John, and she has one last chance of making sure things happen a different way.--The Doctor cut him off with a slow shake of her head. Of course, John had to get to her past self to save the multiverse. Then… then he would be gone. She had a violent urge to just keep him there. Find a way to stabilize him in the present and never let go. But of course, he had to go. “I know,” she stated plainly. “the stars are going out"





	How to Rewrite History (Again)

**Author's Note:**

> *Unedited.
> 
> My god, you guys, I am so tired.

(Based on [_this_](http://doomslock.tumblr.com/post/43524805637) tumblr post)  
  
-  
  
"Doctor?" The woman with ginger hair asked, a little in awe of the blonde in front of her.  
  
The Doctor's smile slid slowly off her face. All of her 901 years, and a pristine memory (if she said so herself, and she _did_ ), and she couldn't remember meeting the woman in front of her. And it could be no coincidence that they knew her name, not here. Not during this troublesome event she'd landed herself in.  
  
The woman in front of her shook her head a little, the look in her eyes changing to one of pity. "But I'm the Doctor. Future Doctor, that is."  
  
And then The Doctor, the proper-blonde-timeline Doctor* smiled. She knew they couldn't stay in the same place for long without causing a paradox, and she didn't fancy seeing the reapers again. Or anything worse. But after a brief pause, she smiled wider and shrugged at her future self. "Fantastic!" she laughed. "I'll havta' tell John, he'll be so relieved. I can finally stop whining about not being ginger."  
  
*(if you could follow the timeline erratically as she, they, did, well perhaps you'd still have trouble keeping it straight).  
  
Then, The Doctor couldn't help noticing Future Doctor's gaze falling as her head drooped. Indeed, The Doctor was glued to every micro expression her older self was making. What could it mean that she didn't just laugh and agree with her? That her older self didn't just tell her that John had hated it, while giving herself a nod at him being well, well. Well. The Doctor didn't like the sadness in the older woman's eyes. She didn't like how it made her look _that much_ older. So much more reserved. Because it made herself feel smaller, somehow. Then the ginger raised her eyes back to meet hers, and The Doctor hated that even more. She knew. For her, John was just visiting his family. He was safe. But this new Doctor was full of fresh loss. The blonde Doctor was terrified to speak the only question buzzing in her mind, but she had to know. Maybe, desperately, she thought, her next incarnation was having a go at her. Being cheeky.

"Doctor?" She slowly asked. "Where's John?" All trace of earlier amusement gone from her voice.

She didn't like the silence which followed. Not one bit.

 

"I have to go," the ginger replied after a long pause. "Timestreams and that," and she waved her hand about her head as an afterthought.

The Doctor could only stare after her as she watched herself turn pointedly and deliberately walk away. Then her older self paused, and turned her head, yelling "906!" over her shoulder. It was a warning.  
  
Once the woman was out of sight, all The Doctor wanted to do was run after her, pleading. As she heard the sound of the TARDIS, she wanted to beg herself for answers. "How do I change it! How could you let anything happen to him? He trusts me! He trusted _you_." All the while her mind replayed the moment John had chosen to travel with her. That beautiful, fateful day. She didn't know how much the ginger Timelord had wanted to grab her shoulders and question her much the same way.

  
\--  
  
  
The Doctor turned to her companion. "How long are you gonna stay with me?" She asked John, who showed no fear nor hesitation in staring dotingly into her eyes.

"Forever." He replied.  
  
The Doctor, with the brown coat and red hair remembered that moment, as clearly as she remembered losing John to the other world when she was blonde. She missed him expertly.  
She would miss them all, naturally. All of her companions. The ones she'd met or traveled with using these eyes. Being _this_ her. Being the her she had been before, too.  
Somehow she knew her next incarnation would be different. Farther removed from these memories, from who she had been recently and from who she was now.  
She was 1,160, and she hadn't listened before. She hoped, when the time came, that the woman she would become could forgive them.  
She didn't notice the man with brown hair as he materialized some feet away from her. Wearing a pinstripe suit and a dimension cannon and soundlessly mouthing "Doctor!"

\--  
  
She had stopped counting. She was surely over 2,000 years old (give or take a retcon or two), and she didn't care. Didn't have anyone to keep count for or any reason to do it for herself. Trying to pin down an exact timeframe on her life was reductive. There were much better uses for her attention and cleverness. For one, the class she was teaching in a moment.  
  
But then, as she smoothed down her brown hair, she could feel time going into flux.

The air in front of her was charged, as John Smith stepped in, stumbling through the rift he'd created. He took a moment to compose himself and to look around the room rapidly, before settling his focus on the sole occupant of the room.

"Blimey, I'm sorry, I must've gotten the coordinates wrong again. Super hard to make this thing accurate, unfortunately." Then he looked around guiltily and backtracked. " _Well..._ " he drew out. "It is linked to one specific person, and that's been accurate enough. So she should be here somewhere. There's this woman called The Doctor, blonde and pink, sort of. Anyway It's imperative that I find her. Have you met her?"

The Doctor swallowed her shock at seeing John again. She felt for a moment as if everything had righted itself, the world had shifted back into focus. She settled back into someone she'd been when she was much, much younger. As John watched her eyes rove over to a doctorate on the wall and followed her gaze, she spoke.

"I'm the doctor, doctor of Psychology, Philosophy, and more. I think you'll find that there are many "doctors" here at the university, Mr. Smith." There was a twinkle in her eye that she couldn't help.

John was looking very sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck. It took him a minute to catch up. "Doctor." He said with awe. Taking in her chocolate brown hair, her comfortable yet professional dress. The way she crossed her arms and looked at him with amusement in her old eyes. And that smug smile as she replied, "The one and only." He ran over to her and pulled her into a crushing hug.

The Doctor grunted as John whispered, "I've been looking everywhere for you!"  
  
"Oi!" She said, hands comically poised over John's back like she didn't know what do to with the sudden physical contact. Then she gave in and rested herself around him for a moment before standing back. "I'm not as young as I look, you know! You nearly gave me a full-on heartattack! Which is quite impressive to accomplish with having two."  
  
John just laughed at her. But he had a mission to remember. "Doctor," he said, sobering. "I have to tell you something, something important. You have to know. My world-"

The Doctor cut him off with a slow shake of her head. Of course, John had to get to her past self to save the multiverse. Then... then he would be gone. She had a violent urge to just keep him there. Find a way to stabilize him in the present and never let go. But of course, he had to go. "I know," she stated plainly. "the stars are going out"  
  
"But I'm not-" John tried to cut in. The Doctor didn't let him.

"And I'd love to help you, but it's been so long ago for me. You've got to jump again. I can-"

"That's what I'm here to tell you, we already-" John sped up,  
  
The Doctor shot him a pointed look and continued. "I can help you lock onto the version of me you're looking for if you,"

"did that. Doctor!" He finished, exasperated.

"would just _shut up_ for a moment!" The Doctor nearly spat, glaring up at him in a befuddled mix of fondness and irritation. "I'm trying to  _help_  you-" She started, but closed her jaw tight when John began to yell.  
  
" _ **You left me all alone on a beach in Norway again with doppelganger you.**_"

As he stood there, huffing in indignation, The Doctor was miraculously speechless.

He couldn't know about that before being trapped the second time. Could it be that just as he was seeing a new her now, she was seeing a new him? She looked at him, finally looked at him, and realized he wasn't wearing the pinstripes he'd been wearing the last time. He was wearing a blue coat, and his hair was a bit longer. He was different.

"Metacrisis me," she muttered unhelpfully.

He threw up his hands, before pacing and collapsing in her desk chair. "Whatever," he answered grumpily.

And just like that, The Doctor knew what she had to do. "I'm sending you back." She announced.

"What?" John gaped, startling back up. "You can't! That's what I'm trying to say, that universe never had a version of me! I wasn't supposed to be there. It started collapsing on itself. The way other you explained it. I had to get back here, to my proper reality to stop everything from being destroyed. She helped me find a way."

The Doctor frowned thoughtfully, yet remained steadfast. None of that would matter with what she planned. "That is frightening. And all the more reason why I have to send you back." She paused. "To my younger self." Her voice softened as she reached out to place her hand on John's chest. "I'll fix it, I promise."

And then she pulled him down to her and whispered something in his ear.

He moved back and looked at her, searching her face. Then John fired up the dimension cannon and jumped.

A few minutes passed as The Doctor watched the clock on the wall, regretfully thinking about her next class starting without her. Somewhat missing her students' faces. She began to feel time changing around her. Her memories replacing themselves with new ones. And she braced herself.

\--

"Doctor!" John called, his voice reaching his destination before he fully slipped through. Having followed the coordinates The Doctor had given him. That beautiful blonde woman looked at him with surprise and hesitated a moment. There was John, blatantly _not_ sealed off in the other universe. Challenging the nature of impossibility. He had to be. Like when he had come for her as Bad Wolf.  She didn't care about the implications him being there posed. Then a smile broke onto her face, tears threatening in her eyes as she ran to embrace him.

John grinned into her hair. This is what he had missed with the older Timelord. He lowered his head and whispered, "906. Fix it." in the exact same way she had said it to him in the future.  
  
And then, he added, "You also said to tell you that 'when you see the whitepoint star, bring Jack along'."

\--

The much older Doctor stared around her classroom. It was all still there. _She_ was still there. She'd done an incredibly stupid thing trying to rewrite history. Again. There was no way it would've worked. All it had made her feel, was older. She considered brewing up a very strong cup of tea and imbibing in a nice sulk*, when the door to her office burst open. A very familiar head of brown hair popped in.

"Doctor! You're late for your 2pm lecture." He looked at her state of shock, and lowered his voice. "Is everything alright?" John looked her over, visibly worried.

The Doctor ran to him.

 

*after all, who could blame her for not immediately analyzing her new memories, and finding that she was in fact older, on account of all the time and new adventures she had now had with John way back then?

**Author's Note:**

> Somewhere, somewhen, the Ood sang of a timeline that was ending.
> 
> As the new timeline took hold.  
> \--
> 
> It's one of those Bootstrap paradoxes, you know?


End file.
